Shaving razors have evolved over the years from a straight edge razor, having a razor edge that needed to be sharpened from time to time, to a safety razor having a unitary handle and head, the head being opened to receive replaceable blades, to a handle and razor cartridge system, where a razor cartridge having integrated blades and a handle connection member is attached to a handle having a cartridge connection member.
With the advent of replaceable blades, there next came the need to keep a store of razor blades for replacement when used blades lost their edge. With safety razors, which used substantially flat single or double edge blades, new blades were individually wrapped in paper, stacked and placed in a cardboard box with end flaps for removing a wrapped blade. The flat nature of the safety razor blades made wrapping in paper and storage of a number of wrapped blades in a small cardboard box very easy.
However, once disposable razor blade cartridges came into use, there was a need to store the blade cartridges in a dispenser where the cartridge could be attached to or removed from the handle quickly and easily. These dispensers were most often formed of plastic and provided separate compartments for individually retaining individual blade cartridges.
One example of a cartridge dispenser is found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,835,532, which shows a number of compartments into which individual blade cartridges are stored, having lugs to maintain the cartridges in the compartments. When a blade cartridge is to be removed from the dispenser, the user attaches the handle to the cartridge and pulls up on the handle to overcome the force of the lug on the blade portion of the cartridge, releasing the cartridge from the dispenser. The user can replace a used cartridge into the dispenser by pushing the used cartridge into an empty compartment, overcoming the force of the lug when pushing down, and then releasing the cartridge from the handle.
Blade cartridge dispensers have changed with changes in blade cartridges. For example, cartridges have changed to include not just the blade portion but also a handle connection portion that is pivotably attached to the blade portion. In keeping, some cartridge dispensers have been designed to provide that the handle connection portion of the cartridges is covered by a divider separating cartridges and by side walls of the dispenser that extend above the handle connection portion of the cartridge.
For example, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,041,926, blade cartridge dispensers have been described to include two piece structures that form compartments for containing the handle connection portions as well as the blade portions of the cartridge. The structure shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,041,926 further describes a latch that engages the top of the connection portion of the cartridge, such that a cam on the handle separates the latch from the handle connection portion for removal of the cartridge from the dispenser.
However, there is needed a razor cartridge dispenser which conveniently and efficiently retains, dispenses and accepts razor blade cartridges that is limited in size and contains its own packaging.